- Flooring trends swing between warm and cool, and natural and "perfect", roughly every 10–15 years.
- What ages worst is whatever was most extreme for its time: shag, orange honey oak, espresso, flat cold grey.
- What ages best is natural wood in a mid-tone. It's been "in" in some form in every decade.
- Try the interactive timeline to see the colours of each era.
Pull up enough old floors and you start to read a house like tree rings. Carpet over sheet vinyl over oak strip. Every era left a layer. Here's the quick tour, from what we've seen in Lower Mainland homes.
1950s: oak strip and linoleum
Post-war houses got narrow 2¼" oak strip flooring, usually red or white oak, in the living and dining rooms. Kitchens and bathrooms got linoleum or vinyl-asbestos tiles. Plenty of Surrey and White Rock homes from this era still have the original oak under the carpet. Sometimes it just needs a sand and refinish to look amazing.
Safety note: older vinyl tiles, sheet vinyl and the black glue under them can contain asbestos. In BC, WorkSafeBC requires a hazardous materials survey before renovating most buildings built before 1990. Don't scrape old tiles until they're tested. More here.
1960s–70s: shag, sheet vinyl and earth tones
Wall-to-wall carpet took over: shag in harvest gold, avocado green and burnt orange. Kitchens got cushioned sheet vinyl with fake brick and tile patterns. Hardwood was out, and people covered it up. That's why it's often in good shape when we find it.
What aged badly: the colours, and the carpet itself, which traps everything.
1980s: plush, pastel and pickled
Plush carpet in dusty rose, mauve and seafoam. Big glossy white ceramic tile in kitchens and entries. And the first "pickled" whitewashed oak, a light, pinkish-white wash on oak.
What aged badly: the pastels, the pink-washed oak and the glossy finishes.
1990s: honey oak and the laminate boom
Hardwood came back, and it was golden honey oak with a shiny polyurethane finish, often matched with honey oak cabinets. Laminate arrived in North America in the mid-90s (it was invented in Sweden in the late 1970s). It was a cheaper "wood look" that clicked together.
What aged badly: the orange tone. Oak naturally ambers over time, and with yellowing finishes many 90s floors turned quite orange. Good news: a lot of it can be sanded and refinished in a modern natural or neutral tone.
2000s: dark and exotic
Espresso stains, Brazilian cherry, jatoba and other exotics. Hand-scraped "distressed" finishes. Travertine tile. Cream walls. Homes looked rich in photos.
What aged badly: the maintenance. Dark floors show every speck of dust, every pet hair and every scratch. And exotic species like Brazilian cherry darken a lot in the sun, so a rug moved after five years leaves a pale rectangle.
2010s: grey everything (and vinyl takes over)
Wide, wire-brushed, grey and greige planks, white shaker cabinets, grey quartz. Nearly every flip and new build in the Lower Mainland had it. Meanwhile vinyl plank went mainstream, especially after rigid-core (SPC) arrived in the mid-to-late 2010s, and it took a huge share of the market from laminate and carpet.
What aged badly: cool, flat grey. It reads cold, especially in BC winter light, and buyers now see it as dated. Warmer "greige" has held up better.
2020s: warm, natural, matte
Natural and light white oak, warm mid-tones, low-sheen matte finishes, wider and longer planks, and herringbone and chevron patterns. Vinyl and laminate look far more convincing than they used to. More on where it's going in our trends page.
What 75 years of trends teach us
- The extremes date fastest. The most "of the moment" colour is the one you'll want to change first.
- Natural wood in a mid-tone never fully goes out. It's the jeans of flooring.
- Gloss always dates. Every era's shiny finish looks old a decade later.
- Choose your trend in the stuff that's cheap to change (paint, rugs, decor) and keep the floor timeless.
- Real hardwood can follow trends. Sand it and change the colour. That's its superpower.
Common questions
Are grey floors out of style?
Cool grey floors peaked around 2014–2021 and now generally read as dated. Warmer greige (grey-beige) has aged better. Warm natural wood tones are the current direction.
What flooring colour never goes out of style?
Natural wood in a mid-tone, like natural or lightly warm oak, with a matte or satin finish. It's been popular in some form in almost every decade and hides wear well.
Can old honey oak floors be updated?
Usually, yes. If it's solid hardwood or thick engineered, it can be sanded to bare wood and refinished in a modern natural or neutral tone. Red oak's pink undertone sometimes needs a toned stain to neutralize.
Is there asbestos in old flooring?
It's possible. Vinyl floor tiles, sheet vinyl and black mastic glue made before about 1990 can contain asbestos. In BC, a hazardous materials survey is required before renovating most pre-1990 buildings. Test before you scrape.
Who's writing this: Rose and Thorn Flooring is a flooring company in Surrey, BC. We install floors for a living, so yes, we'd love to do yours. But nobody pays us to say nice things about a product, and we don't earn commission from any brand. If something here is wrong or out of date, text us at 604-716-4160 and we'll fix it.